FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- The New England Revolution returned to the Eastern Conference summit with a 2-1 victory Wednesday against D.C. United at Gillette Stadium.
Taylor Twellman opened the scoring in the 24th minute after a fortuitous bounce presented him with a chance inside of six yards. Jeff Larentowicz doubled the Revolution's lead four minutes after halftime when his swerving drive caught United 'keeper Louis Crayton by surprise. Jaime Moreno drew one back for United in the 69th minute, but United couldn't push on to find the equalizer.
With the win, the Revs returned to first place in the Eastern Conference while United remain tied for fourth place with the New York Red Bulls.
Matt Reis failed to start for the first time in 90 regular season games after picking up an adductor strain in Saturday's 4-0 loss at San Jose. Doug Warren made his first MLS start since Aug. 21, 2005 in Reis' place. Taylor Twellman and Adam Cristman were charged with staking Warren to a much-needed lead.
Without starters Gonzalo Martinez and Gonzalo Peralta, United went with Marc Burch and Devon McTavish in central defense and Mike Zaher on the left hand side of the back four. Marcelo Gallardo remained out with a hernia injury; the more defensive central pairing of Clyde Simms and Joe Vide played instead.
The visitors started the better of the two sides as United attempted to grab an early goal. Despite the early pressure, there wasn't much to show for any of it aside from Vide's long-distance drive past the near post.
From nothing, the Revs claimed the lead on 24 minutes. All it took was a quick outlet pass from Steve Ralston and a surging run from Khano Smith down the left side to unlock United's defense. Smith's low driven cross was driven into the goalmouth, where Cristman slid between Burch's legs as they came across the front of goal. The ball deflected away, but fell to Twellman at the near post, and he didn't miss from inside six yards to give New England the lead.
The Revs pushed onward after the breakthrough. Most of the pressure came down inside United's defensive end, whether through Sainey Nyassi giving Zaher the runaround down the right side or Smith tormenting Namoff on the right.
Cristman went close from his glancing header from a driven Jay Heaps cross that nearly caught Louis Crayton off his line. Then Cristman likely would have liked a better finish to cap a comprehensive move with Ralston again at the hub.
United tried to respond before the break with a long-distance drive from Fred, but the shot ducked just wide around the far post.
Things turned worse for United soon after the second half commenced after New England scored its second. Twellman laid the ball back to Larentowicz for a swerving shot straight down the pipe from 25 yards. Crayton dived right when the ball stayed left and the Revs had their second goal.
United perked up after the second goal with Emilio looking more involved. Fred tried to draw a penalty on the byeline after juking around Heaps, but the referee waved away his arguments as he tumbled to the ground.
Twellman went looking for his second after he pushed through the United back line, but Crayton came out alertly to block at his feet.
The block became even more important minutes later after Moreno chipped Warren to close the deficit. Shalrie Joseph coughed up the ball in his own end and Moreno played Fred through the Revs defense. Heaps slid over to block Fred's shot, but the ball deflected to Moreno. Warren had wandered off his line to cut out Fred's shot and Moreno took advantage and chipped over him.
United continued into the ascendancy through Moreno's persistent prodding. Another diagonal ball opened up space for Quaranta. But the resulting left-footed shot rolled tamely to Warren.
The goal United wanted never arrived, and but for Bryan Namoff's goal line intervention minutes before the end, the scoreline could have been worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment